ATF Head: Our Job Is Not To Take Away People’s Guns

WASHINGTON, D.C., FEBRUARY 27, 2014: The committee on the judiciary subcommittee on crime, terrorism, homeland security and investigations holds a hearing on the bureau of alcohol, tobacco, firearms and explosives use of storefront operations with Thomas Brandon, deputy director of the Bureau of ATF testifying. (Photo by Astrid Riecken For McClathchy Tribune)

In his first tele­vi­sion inter­view, Bureau of Alco­hol, Tobac­co, Firearms and Explo­sives (ATF) Deputy Direc­tor, Head Thomas Bran­don tells CBS’ “Sun­day Morn­ing” that the agency’s job is not to take away firearms from peo­ple, but to reg­u­late weapons that can be mis­used.

“We’re a small agency with a big job,” Bran­don tells cor­re­spon­dent Richard Schlesinger, in an inter­view to be broad­cast Sun­day, July 31.

Bran­don also says his agency is ham­pered by not hav­ing the nec­es­sary tech­nol­o­gy. Con­gress has imposed con­straints on ATF, such as pro­hibit­ing the agency from cre­at­ing a com­put­er­ized data­base of gun pur­chas­es.

The roots of the cur­rent ATF were plant­ed in 1791 by Alexan­der Hamil­ton, when he decid­ed to col­lect tax­es on whiskey. Over time, the agency mor­phed into today’s ATF, which now pur­sues ille­gal gun traf­fick­ers, as well as con­duct­ing arson and explo­sive inves­ti­ga­tions.

The agency has played key roles in the Pulse night­club shoot­ing inves­ti­ga­tion, the World Trade Cen­ter bomb­ing, and the attack on the Okla­homa Fed­er­al Build­ing.

Yet, it’s also an agency that is tar­get­ed by gun advo­cates and Mem­bers of Con­gress, who see the agency as a threat to legal gun own­er­ship.

“I think we ought to get rid of the ATF,” says Rep. James Sensen­bren­ner (R-Wis.). Sensen­bren­ner oppos­es the AFT hav­ing a search­able data­base of gun man­u­fac­tur­ing and gun sales because, he says, it amounts to “de fac­to gun reg­is­tra­tion.”

Yet, Bran­don says, not hav­ing the data­base hurts. Indeed, after the San Bernardi­no shoot­ings, it took 12 hours to find out who owned the guns used in the attack. He says a com­put­er data­base would have helped, and adds that not hav­ing one sim­ply doesn’t make sense.

“There’s a lot of things that don’t make sense in this town, you know?” Bran­don tells Schlesinger. “And, so, yeah, would it be effi­cient and effec­tive? Absolute­ly. Would the tax­pay­ers ben­e­fit with pub­lic safe­ty? Absolute­ly. Are we allowed to do it? No.”

Schlesinger’s report on the ATF is part of a spe­cial “Sun­day Morn­ing” broad­cast this week­end, titled “Guns and Amer­i­ca.”